What this movie is about...........
After just watching this movie, I came on here to read through some of the threads to see the comments people had made. I read several of the threads and was totally surprised how it seems no one got the whole point of this movie which was, by the way, a brilliant performance by Nicolas Cage. This movie was about how a decorated and respected police detective suffered a back injury which was going to cause him severe pain for the rest of his life. As his pain increased he needed the drugs just to get through the day and do his job. So we are watching someone drawn into the downward spiral of drug addiction. Many people have gone down this path through no fault of their own just to function with so much pain.
We are watching a good man (who may be a little unorthedox in his methods)change and how the drugs affect his everyday life. Even through it all he manages to instigate some brilliant plans to get him out of the situations he finds himself in and deal with the really bad criminals. His father and his girlfriend seek rehabilitaion for their addictions. So that plus finding a photo of his first commendation when he goes to pick up her clothes,it is a wake up call to how far he has fallen.
A year later, he gets another commendation and everyone, including him, has cleaned up their act. He's going to be a father and life is good, expect for one thing. The constant pain he still has to live with; hence the need, on really bad days for some "extra" help. Of course he doesn't have the money to buy what he needs so he has to take it from from whomever he can. In a hotel room, getting his fix and feeling trapped in his situation, he is found by the criminal who life he saved in the beginning of the film. Having now turned his life around because of Cage's actions, he understands and offers his support.
It was a thought provoking film, both sad and funny (his hallucinations) There, but for the Gace of God, go I. This story is about the human condition and how drugs can change your life. Like I said, I think it is probably Cage's best performance!